Agenda

8.00

Registration & Coffee

8.50

Chairman's welcome address

9.00

Panel session: broadening of the green bond market

The green bond market has seen issuers from a number of new sectors coming to market for the first time in the past year in Europe, and the use of green bond proceeds globally saw greater diversification in 2016 than any other previous year. Sustainability and social bonds are also continuing to attract investors, with record-breaking issues taking place in this fairly nascent market. This panel will bring together a panel of experts to discuss the drivers behind the broadening of Europe's green bond space and the potential for new industries to join the market in the coming 12 to 18 months.

Key green bond issues from new sectors in 2017 – what were the drivers behind these issues and what made them attractive for investors? Which sectors could be next?

What is the potential for a continued broadening of the green bond market? Will we see more structured products? Which new geographies have potential for more green bonds?

How is the sustainability and social bond market likely to evolve in the coming years?

How big is the long-term potential for new types of issuers and new types of green bonds in Europe?

Speakers:Axel Bendiek, Head of Treasury, State of North Rhine-WestphaliaBen Powell, Head of Funding, IFCEmanuela Cernoia-Russo, Senior Treasury Manager, TfLFrancois Millet, head of product, Lyxor ETFThomas Pönisch, Head of Treasury, DKB

11.15

Morning coffee break

11.45

The future of sovereign green bonds

Late 2016 saw the beginning of sovereign green bond issues in Europe with Poland and France coming to market with big-ticket bonds. Several other countries are understood to be considering sovereign green bonds as governments look to play bigger roles in mobilising green investments. This panel will examine the potential for sovereign green bonds in Europe and discuss how this market is expected to develop in the short and long-term. Speakers will also discuss the key challenges that come with sovereign bonds and speak of the role of governments more broadly in promoting green bond issues.

What are the key drivers for a country to issue a sovereign green bond? What made the sovereign green bonds issued to date a success?

How can governments gear up to issue a sovereign green bond?

What is the potential for this market to grow – will existing issuers issue further sovereign green bonds and which countries could be next?

What type of investors make up the sovereign green bond investor universe and how could this change in the future?

What are the main challenges associated with sovereign green bonds?

What types of broader environmental policies and support mechanisms can governments put in place to boost green bond issues?

12.25

Keynote: Green bonds - 10 years on

12.45

Lunch

13.50

Panel session: Issuer panel

What motivated the latest corporate issuers to come to the market? What could drive a bigger diversification of corporate green bond issuers?

Corporate caution – are concerns about the added scrutiny associated with issuing a green bond holding back some potential corporate issuers? How can this be overcome?

Issuers' views on investors: have seasoned green bond investors noticed changes in investor demand in recent years? As the market has grown and expanded into new industries, do investors have other requirements now than some years ago?

What are the main risks – green bond market and macro-related – for issuers looking to come to market in the coming 12-18 months?·

The challenges of selecting appropriate assets and the reporting obligations

14.35

Panel session: impact and standards – where are we now and what's left to do?

Proving that green bonds make a real environmental impact is important for the continued growth of the market. Industry standards and guidelines have undoubtedly improved in recent years and market participants are working to harmonise guidelines across different markets. But as the green bond markets keeps growing, so do calls for more clarity around the environmental benefits of the transactions.

This panel of investors, NGOs and verifiers will discuss the ever-present question "do green bonds make a difference?" in the context of today, examining the effectiveness of current standards and guidelines. They will also look ahead to the future and give their predictions on how standards and impact reporting could evolve in the next five years.

15.20

Presentation - Assessing the climate mitigation impact of green bonds

Christopher Egerton-Warburton, Partner, Lion's Head Global Partners

15.30

Afternoon coffee break

15.50

PRESENTATION: Major sustainable finance initiatives and their impact on the green bond market

Our two speakers will talk about progress made by the FSB's Task-force for climate-related disclosure and the EU high-level expert group on sustainable finance and what these two initiatives mean for the green bond market.

16.15

Boosting green bonds in emerging markets

Emerging markets have been touted to have huge potential for green bonds for years, but still make up a relatively small share of green bonds issued and diversification into new emerging market countries and currencies is fairly slow. But efforts are underway to bolster the market, for example with IFC's announcement last year that it will launch a $2bn fund to provide anchor investments for emerging market green bonds. Speakers on this panel will discuss:

The progress to date of the IFC's cornerstone fund and other efforts to boost emerging market efforts

What is needed on individual emerging market government level to encourage more issues? Which governments are already doing this?

Expectations for the year ahead – new countries, currencies

Performance and risks – have the emerging market green bonds issued so far performed as expected? What are the main risks associated with the bonds?